


Hero's Surprise Party

by Loveatfirstbook



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Lovely Little Ficlets challenge, Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 02:02:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3156836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loveatfirstbook/pseuds/Loveatfirstbook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John holds a surprise party for Hero on February 16th.</p>
<p>Day 10 of the Lovely Little Ficlets challenge</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hero's Surprise Party

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my first Donalduke fic so I'm not sure that their dynamic is right. John is a bit more talkative than usual and he and Hero have become friends after the events of 2014.  
> Enjoy.

John was panicking. The cake was a flat scorched mess and it was all wrong! With twenty minutes until she and Bea turned up and fifteen until everyone else did, he definitely didn’t have time to make another. 

Pacing around the Duke’s kitchen with a streak of batter on his face, John sighed. Today was supposed to be Hero’s perfect day and now it couldn’t be the way he’d planned. Almost would have to be good enough, John conceded to himself as he picked up his mobile. “Hi Ursula … Could I please ask a favour of you? … If you could pick up a square Madeira cake on your way here, that would be great … Thanks. I’ll see you then.”

Hopefully a store-bought Madeira cake could be a good enough substitute. Although, why he chose to bake the cake himself with his ineptitude in that field he couldn’t quite remember. John thanked whomever was in charge of talents that he was as good as icing as he was terrible at baking. 

“Running out of time, aren’t you?” Ursula called into the kitchen in her party dress with a smile on her face. She handed over the cake and within a minute he was done, despite his current pedantic attitude. “John, go upstairs and change. I’ll clean up here for you.”

Ursula received one last look before he complied, jogging into the Duke’s upstairs bathroom. When Pedro had heard what John planned to do, he forced their father to buy John a suit. In a black suit with a cream shirt, John, while thanking Pedro for his help (because the occasion was too formal for a t-shirt and jeans), felt like he was going to be out of place amid the crowd. It could definitely be worse, he admitted to himself as signs of cooking were wiped clean from his face. At least he won’t have to wear his board shorts. 

By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, John was nervous again. What if he’d screwed up? What if she didn’t like it? What if it was all a mistake?

“It’s looking great, bro,” Pedro said, interrupting his daydream with reassurances. “She’s going to love it.”

The younger brother grinned to the elder and then set about instructing everyone who had arrived of what was happening. “Okay, so we haven’t got long until Bea comes back but she’s promised to text me when they’re at the corner of the street.” A chime went off from John’s pocket.

“They’re back!” Ben yelled as he sped through the back door, beating John to the punch. With Ben’s presence, everyone was there.

“You all know what to say when they come into the room. Now hide,” John ordered and scrambled to join the others in their various positions.

Hero’s voice increased in volume as two pairs of footsteps came closer to the room. “Beatrice, I still don’t know why you wanted to get so dressed up for the movie –“

“Happy sixteenth-and-a-half birthday!” 

John shot out of his hiding place with the rest of them. Hero’s face as she absorbed the people around her was priceless. “What is this?” she gasped. “It’s February.”

Ursula was at once their self-elected spokesperson. “Hero, we know your sixteenth didn’t end like you wanted and it’s a lot harder to plan a surprise party for your birthday when I know you’ve already started on your seventeenth. So this is your half-birthday.”

“Anything you want today is yours,” Bea added. 

“So this is why you wanted me to wear a party dress, Beatrice,” Hero said. She wore a sweetheart dress with a tulle skirt in a colour as white as clouds. Hero looked, in John’s eyes, more perfect than an angel.

Bea, who wore a simple V-neck midnight blue dress, chuckled. “Hero, in your whole life, when have I ever dressed up to go to the cinema before?”

That earned her a hug. John stood off to the side and observed Hero’s joy. No one was as worthy of happiness as her.

...

Hours later, Hero joined him out on the patio. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

The stood in comfortable silence for a few moments to look at the first evening stars. “So Bea told me that you organised this party.” John murmured to the affirmative. “And Ursula told me you tried to bake a cake for me and iced the one inside.”

“My baking skills aren’t great,” John admitted. “Ann tried but my skills refuse to improve.”

“You stole the idea from an old book.”

“I did. One of your suggestions, if I recall correctly.”

Hero changed topics again, turning to face him. “Pedro says you’ve been planning this for months.”

He couldn’t look at her. “When I started, it was supposed to be the last apology for everything that happened last year. After getting to know you, though, I thought that you deserve it.” He tried to watch her from the corner of his eye. “You’re the kindest person I know and I wanted to give you a perfect evening to say thanks. You didn’t have to even acknowledge my existence after last year and I’ll never deserve your forgiveness but you gave it freely. Your heart was kind enough to not only forgive me but to become my friend and I can never thank you enough for that.”

Thankyou for allowing me close enough to fall for you. You helped me become a better person, he thought.

“Thankyou, John.” She leant over and kissed his cheek. She’d retreated before he could react. John could still feel the ghost of Hero’s lips on his cheek as his eyes followed her figure returning to the party. Today was their perfect day.


End file.
